Two nonprofits join, one goal is reached: Help needy

Until last week, that was the equation – and the living situation – for Crystal and Martin Padilla and their seven children.

Here's another equation:

Two Orange County nonprofits plus one big merger equals one new nonprofit that, in theory, will provide more help for down-on-their luck families like the Padillas.

OC Partnership, a 15-year-old nonprofit devoted to ending homelessness and best known for helping produce a census of the local homeless population, and 2-1-1 Orange County, an 8-year-old group that provides a 911-like help line for people in crisis, plan to join forces as soon as this week. The new nonprofit will be called 2-1-1 OC, and it will strive to assist people desperate for food, shelter, clothing and other basic living and health needs.

That includes people like the Padillas who, until last week, were living out of a white Suburban usually parked in the Santa Ana area.

Martin Padilla, 27, has been out of his job as a tow-truck operator for about a year after suffering a heart attack. Having already exhausted places to stay with friends and relatives, he and his wife, Crystal, 29, phoned the 2-1-1 call center in Irvine, which referred them to the nonprofit Grandma's House of Hope.

That Santa Ana organization, in turn, put the Padillas up in a budget hotel and will pay $2,500 to get them into a two-story, federally subsidized home after the Fourth of July.

“I am so glad I called,” said Padilla, whose children range from 1 to 13.

“I didn't know what to do.”

Getting better, efficient help to people like the Padilla family is the idea behind the unusual merger of OC Partnership and 2-1-1 Orange County, said Max Gardner, board chairman of the new 2-1-1 OC and president and chief executive of Orange County United Way.

Details of the merger are being worked out. Each group has an annual budget of about $1 million a year. The board for the new nonprofit met for the first time this month and is searching for a chief executive.

In addition to providing better help to the homeless in Orange County, the merger could serve as an example of how other nonprofits might benefit by combining resources, Gardner said.

SYMBOLIC UNION?

Orange County has about 3,800 nonprofits, of which about 500 to 600 are very active. Gardner said smaller nonprofits might improve by connecting with other agencies.

“We hope ... to be a beacon or reminder of the importance of how a merger can in some cases make a lot of sense,” said Gardner, 61, who spent 30 years in the real estate industry, including a stint as head of Irvine Company Apartment Communities.

As Gardner sees it, Orange County – unlike, say, San Diego – lacks a clear downtown or any single, unifying force that can galvanize the area's nonprofit sector.

The merger of OC Partnership and 2-1-1 Orange County is a small but symbolic step in better addressing the needs of the community, he said.

LAST CALL

Like the Padilla family, Kayren, 51 – who wanted to use only her first name – was desperate and out of options.

Earlier this month the former mortgage loan officer found herself on the brink of homelessness after pouring most of her money into supporting her adult daughter and two grandchildren. A fractious environment forced Kayren out of her daughter's home.

Out of work since last year, Kayren, like the Padillas, was living out of her car (a Chevy Malibu) until a relative told her about the 2-1-1 help line.

“I called a lot of shelters, but they either weren't open, were already full or had a long waiting list, or told me I needed (dependent) children to be considered for help,” Kayren said.

A call to 2-1-1 Orange County led Kayren to Grandma's House of Hope, which provides services, programs and affordable housing to uniquely challenged women and children.

With just minutes left on a battery-drained cellphone, Kayren was able to land a referral. Now, she's sharing a room and looking for part-time work.

“If it wasn't for 2-1-1, I would definitely be on the streets,” Kayren said.

Though the economy has improved from the big layoff days of 2008 and '09, homelessness remains a key issue in Orange County. Earlier this year, the Homeless Point-in-Time Count and Survey, partly conducted by OC Partnership, reported that 4,251 people are homeless on any given night in Orange County.

Karen Williams, chief operating officer of OC Partnership, said the merger of her group with the 2-1-1 helpline will bring efficiencies in technology, among other things, and it will be easier for the new organization to compile and maintain a database of Orange County's most pressing needs when it comes to health and human services.

Staffed around the clock, the 2-1-1 helpline handles up to 600 calls a day, referring people to a database of 1,500 agencies that offer more than 5,000 programs, said Audrey McIntosh, who manages the call center. The service offers help in more than 200 languages.

Nearly 75 percent of the callers to 2-1-1's information and referral specialists are women 25 to 54. Most are seeking income support, food stamps or shelter, said Dolores Gonzalez-Hayes, the group's interim executive director.

The merger will allow 2-1-1 to do even better, Gardner said.

“They've been doing a good job,” he said, “but this will allow them to do great.”